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By Theresa Thompson raquo

Volcano Turner to WarholCompton Verney

610am Thursday 19th August 2010

It seems a way to go to watch a 14 minute 30second film but even if to see James P Grahamrsquosbreathtaking footage of Stromboli were your onlyreason for visiting the Volcano Turner to Warholexhibition at Compton Verney Warwickshire thissummer I reckon it would be worth it

Film maker Grahamrsquos two-screen video installationIddu mdash study in 60 degrees is a beautifullyconstructed panoramic film of an astonishing islandand is utterly magical

I sat in the gallery in my comfortable seat expectingto watch pyrotechnics But this film is far more thanthat Itrsquos a film about a love for the island as muchas a film about the extraordinary explosive activitythat is a continuous theme of the place

Stromboli a perfect peak of a volcanic island sittingin the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily is home to oneof the most active volcanoes on Earth

The breathtaking footage in Iddu which means lsquohimrsquoin Sicilian dialect took me round this unique islanddawn to dusk seamlessly blending disparateelements fountains of molten rock red dotsspraying against pitch back night sky chunks ofincandescent lava tumbling down mountain slopesshowers of volcanic bombs splattering the sea incontrast the tranquil moon waves rhythmicallyscratching at the shore bone dry reeds swaying inthe wind and to finish bees buzzing to drink at adripping rusty shower head The drip seen close-upin slow-mo forms an inverted cone

Originally conceived as a 360deg work Iddu (2002-7)is a technically challenging piece of work shot usinga circle of 12 cameras four years in the makingreduced from over 12 hours of filming (240 rolls ofSuper-8 film if you want details) Though not asfully immersive an experience as it must be to see itin its 360deg version this 60deg rendering is incrediblypowerful

Moreover the soundtrackrsquos booming cracklinghissing or soothing sounds heard through all theexhibition galleries add atmosphere to the rest ofthis marvellous show

And it is marvellous With volcanoes as its subjectwhat else could it be Itrsquos bound to be a successItrsquos a fascinating and thorough exhibition and itrsquoshad the best serendipitous pre-publicity it could askfor the perfectly timed eruption of IcelandrsquosEyjafjallajoumlkull in April Although a small eruption byvolcano standards the ash cloud sent out by this

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For the second time in three weeks Ifound myself trying to make whoopeein an empty restaurant that was slowly

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Warholrsquos Vesuvius

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volcano brought widespread disruption a potentreminder of the power of natural phenomena

Volcano Turner to Warhol is the first exhibition toexplore the history of our perceptions of volcanoesand it offers a huge variety of artistic responsesfrom paintings to photographs prints books diariesand so on

I liked the way the exhibition is organised It islogical and agreeable moving through a volcanorsquosphases dormancy to eruption and aftermath andthe realms of history myth and literature finally toextinction In the resource room you also find a pileof ash from Eyjafjallajoumlkull

Volcano is curated by Turner scholar lecturer onFaraday James Hamilton University Curator at theUniversity of Birmingham and the Alistair HorneFellow at St Antonyrsquos College Oxford from 1998-99

Though the exhibition has an artistic viewpoint itdoes not forget science

It pays homage with geologistsrsquo notes beside certainworks one or two scientific instruments including abarograph recording the effect on the airwaves atEdgbaston of the Krakatoa eruption on August 271883 and a copy of Sir William Hamiltonrsquos CampiPhlegraei (Fields of Fire) loaned from the BodleianLibrary

Hamilton a British diplomat based in Naples duringan intense eruption cycle on Vesuvius (1760s-70s)sent a series of letters containing observations onEtna and Vesuvius to the Royal Society in London

They were published in this wonderful bookillustrated with coloured engravings by Pietro FabrisA delightful painting hanging nearby shows Hamiltonand his wife sitting in their Naples apartment asmoking Vesuvius visible through the window

This work by David Allan and other paintings suchas Volairersquos spectacular (and fanciful) oil paintingVesuvius Erupting at Night from Compton Verneyrsquospermanent collection of Neapolitan paintings was theinspiration behind the exhibition

Like Volairersquos many of those shown are products ofthe artistrsquos imagination Warholrsquos huge boldenergetic acrylic Vesuvius pictured Joseph Wrightof Derbyrsquos gouache Vesuvius in Eruption JMWTurnerrsquos Eruption of the Souffrier This last on theisland of St Vincent was not witnessed by Turnerbut painted from a drawing given him by aplantation owner James Hamilton points out that ifyou take out of the Turner painting all aspects oferuption explosions violent colouring it could easilybe from Turnerrsquos Picturesque Views of England andWales Buttermere for instance And so it could

In contrast many are very much made fromobservation outstanding works by Icelandic artistsfor example Keith Grantrsquos Eruption Column at20000 feet Heimaey Iceland observed from anairplane Michael Sandlersquos dramatic drawings of the1981 Mount St Helens eruption in the USA Evenmore on the spot an astonishing painting by aCongolese artist records the fiery red slick of a lavastream from a nearby burst crater racing down thehillside on its way to destroy his village as it didhundreds in 1977

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Now the equinox has passed andsummer is gradually giving way toautumn glimpses of gold are beginning

to envelop the English countryside But it seemsevery bit as beautiful now as it was during spring Iam becoming more aware of these seasonal changesnow that I spend a considerable part of my sparetime exploring Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds withmy Border collie Pythius

When lions roamed the palace grounds

To a child of three I suppose there isnothing so very extraordinary about arhinoceros strolling about in

Oxfordshire itrsquos just another fact to take ininteresting but perhaps marginally less so than aride on a miniature train or the prospect of an icecream

Enter Shikari O2 Academy Oxford

When any band used to filling venueswith capacities of thousands crams intoa tiny room therersquos always going to be

more anticipation than usual But for Enter Shikarirsquosshow upstairs in the O2 Academy the state ofexcitement is something beyond feverish Evenbefore the gig while the Hertfordshire quartetrsquosdrums are being tested and guitars tuned the sold-out throng is chanting lyrics and cheering everyaction on the stage So by the time the band comeout and frontman Rou Reynolds summons a pulsingkeyboard riff that Faithless would gladly steal theresult is absolute mayhem with many bodiescolliding to the sound of opener Solidarity

Quartet The Oxford Playhouse

Christopher Gray reviewed this playwhen it passed through Milton Keynesand I talked to its author Sir Ronald

Harwood for these pages a fortnight ago Soreaders are possibly familiar with the plot subtle butgossamer thin three elderly opera singers inhabitinga rest home for bewildered musicians prepare tocelebrate Verdirsquos birthday at a gala show when thefourth member from their famous youth appears

Preview of Decky Does a BroncoPlayhouse Plays Out Florence Park

First seen by Oxford audiences inFlorence Park almost ten years agoDouglas Maxwellrsquos play Decky Does a

Bronco returns there next week fresh from asuccessful run on the Edinburgh Fringe

Home gt Arts and Culture gt Featured RSS CONTACT USTHURSDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2010

Cartoons

lsquoTherersquos overwhelmingevidence for the existenceof Stephen Fryrsquo

Post comment

21 August 2010 | by Laura Gascoigne | Comments (0)

Artistic rumblings

Volcano Turner to WarholCompton Verney until 31 October

On my desk is a lump of lava a memento of Vesuvius It doesnrsquot look like much but

neither does the volcano from the cinder track that winds around to its summit From

close to Vesuvius is a giant ash heap itrsquos from across the bay that the magic works

Never does distance lend more enchantment to the view than in the case of

volcanoes when theyrsquore exploding theyrsquore plain dangerous and when not theyrsquore

really rather dull Their allure is as elusive as a rainbowrsquos and it was in rainbow

colours that Andy Warhol painted Vesuvius in 1985 making it look like a Neapolitan

ice cream blown under pressure through the end of a cone

Warholrsquos lsquoVesuviusrsquo is only the most extreme variation on the volcanic theme in

Compton Verneyrsquos Volcano Turner to Warhol an exhibition of some 200 images and

associated objects that takes us on an imaginative world tour of exploding mountains

from Heimaey to Nyiragongo and Cotopaxi to Fuji It even shows us the knock-on

effects of Krakatoa on Chelsea in a series of 1883 skyscapes by the Thames view

painter William Ashcroft (sunsets were so lurid that fire engines were called out) But

the showrsquos arrangement is not geographical or even historical As befits its disaster

movie title it follows the volcanorsquos dramatic cycle from quiescence through eruption to

regeneration

This last phase is what attracts volcano-dwellers but not tourists The birth of volcano

tourism coincided with the Romantic era to which the earthrsquos magma apparently

responded with a sympathetic spurt of activity But not all volcano painters witnessed

eruptions Turnerrsquos lsquoEruption of the Souffrier Mountains in the Island of St Vincentrsquo

(1815) was painted from a drawing by a local plantation owner mdash and looks a little like

the Lake District with lava bombs mdash while Joseph Wright of Derbyrsquos convincingly

gestural sketch of lsquoVesuvius in Eruptionrsquo predated the big event of 1778 by four years

John Martinrsquos Campi Phlegraei are of course pure fantasy inspired by James Ridleyrsquos

oriental romance Sadak and Kalasrade whose hero is literally tested in the volcanic

fire while searching for the Waters of Oblivion

1 | 2 Next page

More articles from Laura Gascoigne | this section

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1 The dignity of David Miliband - JamesForsyth

2 David Miliband torpedos his brothers bigspeech - Peter Hoskin

3 Will Ed Miliband face facts - Fraser Nelson

4 The penny drops - Fraser Nelson

5 Plugging the leak - Fraser Nelson

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Building blockAMANDA BAILLIEU

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THE SPECTATOR

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Features Fine Arts Opera Theatre Film TV Radio Music Dance The Spectator Arts Blog

Home gt Arts and Culture gt Featured RSS CONTACT USTHURSDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2010

Cartoons

lsquoPsssthellip hersquos been roundagainrsquo

Post comment

21 August 2010 | by Laura Gascoigne | Comments (0)

Artistic rumblings

Volcano Turner to WarholCompton Verney until 31 October

The test of authenticity with volcano paintings is not in the fire but in the smoke The

18th-century artist-priest Padre Antonio Piaggio who filled eight books with studies of

Vesuvius for Sir William Hamilton did for ash clouds what Constable did for vapour

ones earning his patronrsquos affirmation lsquono man was ever more attached to the truthrsquo

The Norwegian artist Johan Christian Dahl commissioned to paint an lsquoEruption of

Vesuviusrsquo (1820) for a local professor of mineralogy showed the volcano authentically

choked with smoke as did the English marine painter Clarkson Stanfield lucky

enough to catch an eruption in 1839 There is also more smoke than fire in Keith

Grantrsquos modern aerial view of the 1973 eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eldfell

pictured from 20000ft as naturersquos mushroom cloud

Grantrsquos is an observational record albeit from an unusual viewpoint as is James P

Grahamrsquos wonderfully atmospheric film of Stromboli Iddu shot in 360deg with 12

cameras (therersquos only room for a 60deg segment here but the rumblings permeate the

galleries) Other contemporary artists milk volcanoes for metaphors of instability Ilana

Halperinrsquos etching series lsquoEmergent Landmassrsquo (2006) records the brief appearance

off Sicily in 1831 of the volcanic island Ferdinandea which sparked a sovereignty

dispute and then promptly sank while Dieter Rothrsquos sequence of collotypes of

lsquoSurtseyrsquo (1973ndash4) transforms the volcanic island that appeared off Iceland in 1963 into

an icircle flottante

Postmodern detachment may lend irony to the view but the Eyjafjallajoumlkull news

headlines pinned up in the galleryrsquos Resource Room remind us of how huffy we get

when volcanoes impact on us And it could have been worse As the showrsquos curator

James Hamilton notes in his informative accompanying booklet the 1783 eruption of

the Icelandic volcano Laki caused bread shortages that led indirectly to the French

Revolution

Previous page 1 | 2

More articles from Laura Gascoigne | this section

Print this article

ShareThis

Be the first to comment on this article

Back to top

Subscribe to Apollo

Most read Most commented on

1 The dignity of David Miliband - JamesForsyth

2 David Miliband torpedos his brothers bigspeech - Peter Hoskin

3 Will Ed Miliband face facts - Fraser Nelson

4 The penny drops - Fraser Nelson

5 Plugging the leak - Fraser Nelson

Popular Coffee House Posts

In this section

Building blockAMANDA BAILLIEU

Weaving a spell ANDREW LAMBIRTH

Identity crisis DEBORAH ROSS

Friends reunited ARIANE BANKES

Mixed blessingsJANE OrsquoHARA

DAVID BLACKBURN

Those earnest pale and dimpledyoung men who staff

search

Search

Subscribe to The Spectator for just pound12

Features Fine Arts Opera Theatre Film TV Radio Music Dance The Spectator Arts Blog

Grandeur Warhols Vesuvius (1985)

Website of the Telegraph Media Group with breaking news sport business latest UK and world news Content from the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph newspapers and video from Telegraph TV

Eyjafjallajoumlkull for us this volcano was perfectly timed

Nothing captures eruptions better than art says the curator of a pyroclastic new show

By James HamiltonPublished 442PM BST 24 Apr 2010

In the past week ash fromEyjafjallajoumlkull in Iceland

(httpwwwtelegraphcoukfinancenewsbysectortransport7608333Volcanic-ash-cloud-Business-counts-the-cost-of-shutdownhtml) hascaused chaos around the world but for me the timing of the eruption has had a strange and particular resonance Forthe past three years I have been curating an extraordinary exhibition of paintings and prints that is coming this summerto Compton Verney the country-house art gallery near Stratford-upon-Avon

Compton Verneyrsquos collection includes a superb selection of Neapolitan paintings Central among these are a fiery pairof works whose subject is the erupting Mount Vesuvius by the French crown-prince of 18th-century volcano paintingPierre-Jacques Volaire Building on these in July we will open the exhibition Volcano from Turner to Warhol a showthat celebrates the artistic outpourings which volcanic eruptions have triggered over the past five centuries

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Very few landscape subjects have galvanised artists so radically although some in the show such as JMW Turnerhad never seen what they were trying to paint relying instead on sketchy first-hand accounts or diagrams inadventurersrsquo notebooks

I too have never seen a live eruption but research on the exhibition took me to Naples where I climbed Vesuvius onecool autumn afternoon in 2008 and found the crater deep and pebbly scattered with scrub like a worked-out Welshquarry No clue but for a single wisp of smoke that here was the throat that with one long cough can affect thecourse of European history

The natural beauty was striking In and around the harsh circumscribed landscape were rich colours pink bandedrocks deep blue sky and sparkling green and silver fading into the distance across the remains of Vesuviusrsquos greatestvictim Pompeii

I went to Reykjavik too flying in across endless fields of purple lupins that cover the flat wastelands around the airportI saw geysers and glaciers waterfalls and hot springs and learnt from the taxi driver (ldquoMy name is Gier like thestickrdquo) that Iceland is Europersquos largest producer of bananas which grow in the heat from the islandrsquos volcanicunderpinnings For Volcano Icelandrsquos National Gallery will be generously lending a series of paintings that reflect thenationrsquos brutal geology

At the start of the exhibition the volcano sits quietly in the landscape calm and benign with works includingHiroshigersquos views of Mount Fuji from the Ashmolean in Oxford Then things start to grumble the volcano smokes andshivers and sends people out into the fields to look and to wonder the late-19th-century Italian painter GioacchinoToma makes us nervous with a steam engine pouring smoke as it rushes past Vesuvius also pouring smoke in a hotnoonday landscape Then bang and crash as through a blacked-out doorway the visitor will see a collection of fieryeruptions including Turnerrsquos volcano in the West Indies

But the revelation will be the Icelandic artists ndash coming to Britain for the first time just as their ash cloud has wehope departed ndash and Andy Warholrsquos magnificent Vesuvius This is being shown for the first time alongside18th‑century depictions whose form and grandeur against all the odds Warhol echoes

After the explosions the human angle ndash displaced persons destroyed cities notably in the terrifying Last Days ofPompeii by HF Schopin And finally the aftermath the clearing up and a series of pastels of the lurid sky effects atsunset in the weeks after the cataclysmic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 which by comparison makes Eyjafjallajoumlkullseem like a damp garden bonfire

Watching the relentless news film and photography of recent days it has struck me how more succinctly the power ofvolcanoes is depicted by the slow and subtle reflection of the artist But whether filmed for the news or painted byTurner as its sudden appearance in the headlines demonstrates that power remains beyond our calculation or control

Volcano from Turner to Warholrsquo is at Compton Verney (01926 645500) from July 24wwwcomptonverneyorguk (http wwwcomptonverneyorguk)

copy Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2010